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Good Morning,

BlackRock wants a piece of the hedge fund industry, foreign investors are dumping Asian stocks, Goldman named their biggest partner class in fourteen years, and the Fed and BoE cut rates for a second time.

Speaking of the Fed, here's what J Pow said when asked if he would resign if Trump requested: "No."

In 2024, there is absolutely zero reason for financial modeling to be as tedious as it is, and Mosaic has the biggest names agreeing. Try 'em out and see why their digital deal modeling platform is taking the industry by storm.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks rose further yesterday as investors digested a second Fed rate cut

  • S&P and Nasdaq closed at record highs

  • Traders see a 75% chance of another 25 bps cut next month

• China's CSI 300 climbed 3% to its highest level in a month as export data and stimulus hopes outweighed US election concerns 

• US bond market selloff cooled

Earnings

• Carlyle beat Q3 estimates on flat profit growth as higher fee income was offset by increased compensation expenses (BBG)

• Airbnb missed Q3 earnings estimates but beat on revenue as it seeks to expand beyond core markets (CNBC) 

• Rivian posted a wider-than-expected Q3 loss, missed revenue estimates and lowered its FY forecast on production and supply chain issues but reiterated plans to achieve modest positive gross profit (CNBC) 

• DraftKings fell 6% despite beating Q3 earnings estimates as it cut FY guidance due to favorable sports outcomes for betters (BBG)

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• J Pow will not resign even if Trump asks (CNBC)

• Fed cuts rates by 25 bps to 4.5%-4.75% range (CNBC)

• BoE also cut rates for a second time to 4.75% (CNBC)

• Risk assets rally but bond market views Trump victory with caution (FT)

• Non-China Asian stocks see biggest monthly foreign outflow in 2.5 years (RT)

• Thematic ETFs sees interest despite headwinds and disappointments (FT)

• Double defaults on CRE loans hit decade-high in growing risk for banks (FT)

• Japan intervened twice in FX markets in Q3 to stabilize yen (BBG)

• Trump is considering Robinhood's legal/compliance chief for SEC chair (RT)

• Gold ETF demand turned positive for the first time YTD (RT)

• Goldman named 95 members to its biggest partner class since 2010 (BBG)

• Citi revamped pay for wealth bankers (FT)

• OpenAI reportedly paid $15M to acquire chat.com domain (TC)

• Nissan cut 9k jobs and halved CEO pay in emergency turnaround effort (BBG)

• TSMC's US investment plan remains unchanged after election (RT)

• FedEx and UPS 'price war' heats up in fight for SMEs (WSJ)

• US 30-year mortgage rate rose to a four-month high of 6.8% (RT)

• Florida boom metros see biggest drop in home prices since 2011 (BBG)

• Private jet emissions soared 50% in four years (FT)

A Message From Litquidity

Model with Mosaic

By now, I'm sure you've heard of the buzzworthy deal modeling platform, Mosaic.

Mosaic was recently featured in Bloomberg and FT for their next-gen technology that allows investment professionals to build LBO models in mere minutes.

The platform was built by PE veterans themselves, and its accuracy, complexity and practicality virtually eliminates the tediousness of modeling tasks that many of us face daily.

I wish I had this tool during my PE days and I'm not surprised that Mosaic is emerging as the new industry standard in deal modeling.

Some of the biggest firms already use Mosaic to save hours on modeling workflows and it's something that you must try.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Ayvens, the $6B-listed French car-leasing business controlled by SocGen, attracted takeover interest from Blackstone, CVC, and Brookfield 

• Bremer Financial, Minnesota’s fourth-largest bank with $1.4B in equity capital, is seeking a buyer

• Ampersand Capital Partners and GHO Capital Partners will take Avid Bioservices private in a $1.1B cash deal

• Malaysian tycoon Lim Kang Hoo is exploring a sale of toll road business Konsortium Lebuhraya Utara-Timur in a potential $1.1B deal

• AT&T will acquire some spectrum assets from tower operator US Cellular for $1.1B

• Scion Group acquired a ~$900M portfolio of student housing properties from real estate investor Harrison Street 

• Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel raised an initial $100M from Apollo to buy live entertainment ventures including Miami Open, Madrid Open and Frieze Art Fair from Endeavor, which PE firm Silver Lake acquired this year

• BlackRock is in talks with to take a minority stake in Millennium, the world's biggest hedge fund 

• US-Irish building materials group CRH is considering reviving a sale of its Philippines cement business

VC

• Boston Materials, an advanced materials manufacturer for semiconductors and aircraft platforms, raised $13.5M led by AccelR8 and Diamond Edge Ventures 

• Accounting SaaS startup Marosa raised a $14M round from Aquiline 

• Indian robotics startup CynLr raised a $10M Series A led by Key Venture Partners 

• Glint Solar, a Norwegian SaaS startup helping energy giants transition to renewables, raised an $8M Series A led by Smedvig Ventures 

• Microfluidic device manufacturer Parallel Fluidics raised a $7M seed round led by J2 Ventures 

• Embed Security, an agentic security platform, raised $6M in funding led by Paladin Capital Group 

• Siit, an AI-powered service desk solution for IT and internal operations, raised a $5M seed round led by StageOne Ventures and Seventure Partners 

• Thesys, a UI startup focused on AI apps, raised a $4M seed round led by Together Fund 

Debt

• Blackstone is planning to refinance ~$3.6B of junior debt for their proposed LBO of Australian center operator AirTrunk

• Chinese metals giant Huayou Cobalt, is seeking $2.7B in bank debt for a Ford-backed Indonesia project

• Golub Capital merged four CLOs in a $1.7B CLO reset, the second-largest CLO reset on record

• Bank Negara Indonesia is raising a $600M loan from six banks including Bank of America and HSBC 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Activist Elliott made an alternative lower $5.3B bid for oil refiner Citgo 

• Franchise Group won court approval to borrow $250M from senior lenders to keep operating in bankruptcy

• India's top court ordered a liquidation of Jet Airways, once India's second-biggest carrier

Crypto Corner

• Detroit will allow residents to pay taxes with crypto through PayPal (CD)

• SEC crypto enforcement is slated for major rollback under Trump (BBG)

• North Korean hackers target crypto firms with malware infecting Apple's macOS (THN)

• Swiss National Bank is wary of crypto (RT)

Exec’s Picks

• Wilson's got some incredible deals across apparel and equipment this fall. Shop the collection here.

• Ben Carlson shared some insightful things he DOESN'T believe about investing.

• Mark Zachary Taylor explained why this year's Nobel Prize in Economics was the most controversial in recent memory.

Hedge Fund Analyst Opportunity

• We are working with Pantera Capital to hire an Investment Analyst for their Liquid Token Fund, an open-ended fund focused primarily on liquid tokens.

• With $5B total firm AUM, Pantera was the first US institutional asset manager focused exclusively on blockchain technology.

• If you are crypto native and have deep fundamental analysis skills with 1-4 years of investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, consulting, or equity research analysis, this is the perfect opportunity for you!

• Bonus points if you manage your own portfolio of digital assets and can discuss your investment strategy.

• Learn more and apply below:

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